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Feb 9: Campaign case may have set course for court
Ruling's impact might be seen in 2nd half of term
WASHINGTON DC -- "As the Supreme Court nears the midpoint of its annual term and prepares to hear several momentous cases, one question looms: Will the justices' split decision reversing past rulings and allowing new corporate spending in political races set the tone for the term, or will Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission be an exception?
'Is this a turning point?' asks Pamela Harris, director of Georgetown Law's Supreme Court Institute. Harris notes that Chief Justice John Roberts' concurring opinion in the campaign-finance case defended reversing past rulings that have been, as Roberts wrote, 'so hotly contested that (they) cannot reliably function as a basis for decision in future cases.'
'That is an incredibly muscular vision of when you would overrule precedent,' which usually guides justices in new cases, Harris says. 'That makes it look like this is a court that's ready to go,'" Joan Biskupic, USA Today.
More on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
Feb 9: Additional petition signatures disqualified
COLUMBUS -- "A group hoping to put a referendum on the fall ballot regarding a proposal to add electronic slot machines will need more additional signatures than previously thought.
That's because three county boards of elections reported late last week that they disqualified an additional 937 signatures because petition circulators are felons, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's office said," Mark Niquette, The Columbus Dispatch.
Feb 8: Editorial: Keep the momentum
Legislative cooperation could move two more important state measures
COLUMBUS -- "For redistricting, House Democrats and Senate Republicans have separate bills with somewhat different approaches to taking the politics out of the task, but they could be reconciled by keeping the best features of each.
The Senate plan, passed in September, would create a bipartisan board to approve maps for both congressional and state legislative districts. It would require at least two votes of minority-party members to approve a plan. That makes it an improvement over the current system, in which the three-member Apportionment Board, controlled by whichever party holds at least two of three designated statewide offices, can dictate state legislative district that favors the dominant party. A state legislative majority can similarly slant the drawing of congressional districts.
The House plan introduces another valuable element: allowing the public to submit proposed maps for districts, which would be graded on four criteria aimed at producing competitive districts and fair representation of the parties and avoiding splitting municipalities between districts. A similar demonstration project sponsored by the Ohio League of Women Voters recently produced impressive results," The Columbus Dispatch.
Feb 8: Checks of voter records coming
Brunner wants notices sent if registration info conflicts with file data
COLUMBUS -- "Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is completing a plan to address a lingering controversy from the 2008 general election in Ohio that generated national attention, lawsuits and even death threats.
Brunner expects to issue a directive soon detailing what county boards of elections must do when the name or other personal information provided by a voter doesn't match state or federal records after an automatic computer check.
Preliminary guidelines call for counties to mail a notice to voters whose information doesn't match so the voters can update their records. That raises concerns among some county officials about the cost and possible voter confusion," Mark Niquette, The Columbus Dispatch.
Feb 8: Exclusive: How corporations secretly move millions to fund political ads
WASHINGTON DC -- "Exclusive: How corporations secretly move millions to fund political adsThe Supreme Court’s seismic January ruling that corporations are free to spend unlimited amounts of their profits to advertise for or against candidates may have been the latest shakeup of campaign finance – but gaping holes already allow corporations to spend enormous sums without leaving a paper trail, a Raw Story investigation has found.
Campaign finance experts confirmed that though disclosure rules remained intact in the new Supreme Court decision, there are effective methods to circumvent them. Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, an attorney and campaign finance expert at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, said corporations already effectively end-run campaign finance law by shuffling money through trade associations," Brad Jacobson, The Raw Story. Posted Feb 4.
Feb 8: Editorial: The more disclosure, the better
COLUMBUS -- "Whether you think the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling giving corporations, unions and nonprofits virtually unfettered campaign spending rights is the end of democracy as we know it or a sterling example of upholding the First Amendment, everyone should be able to agree on one path forward.
Disclosure. Require the companies, labor unions or whoever else starts lobbing so-called independent expenditures for and against candidates in the form of TV ads, mailings or whatever to reveal where the money comes from, put it all on the Web and do it fast.
If the pharmaceutical industry lavishes $5 million worth of TV ads on behalf of Congressman X, everyone should know about it immediately and have at their fingertips the information about precisely which companies are spending that money. Ditto if the AFL-CIO spends millions to help Senator Y," Jonathan Riskind, The Columbus Dispatch. Posted Feb 7.
More on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
Feb 5: Blog: Two district-drawing plans have merit
COLUMBUS -- "...A way has been found to take the power out of the politicians’ hands, to simply eliminate political motivation in map-drawing.
Last year, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner sponsored a test contest promoted by a coalition of activists, including the League of Women Voters and Ohio Citizen Action.
Entrants were asked to draw congressional districts for the last decade, under certain rules, using population stats from the 2000 Census. The results were remarkable," Martin Gottlieb, Dayton Daily News.
Feb 5: Citizens United impact on courts is feared
NEW YORK CITY -- "The potential impact of Citizens United on fair and impartial courts is getting greater attention in states where judges are elected, and new voices are sounding alarms.
In Ohio, the Akron Beacon Journal declared in an editorial that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling 'adds to the urgency of placing a constitutional amendment on the November ballot, otherwise Ohio risks becoming, once again, a poster child for the influence of big money in state Supreme Court campaigns,'" Peter Hardin, GavelGrab.
Feb 5: Ohioan takes on corporate politicking
Brown's bill calls for rules guiding campaign ads
WASHINTON DC -- "Sen. Sherrod Brown says corporate campaign spending allowed under an 'absolutely awful' Supreme Court decision last month should be subject to new requirements ensuring more transparency and accountability.
The Ohio Democrat unveiled a bill yesterday that would require corporations producing political ads or engaging in other independent campaign activities to get shareholders' approval for political spending.
Brown's bill, which he calls the Citizens Right to Know Act, also would require corporate CEOs to make personal disclaimers revealing the company's sponsorship of an ad, much as political candidates now appear briefly on camera or are heard on a radio ad taking responsibility for a spot," Jonathan Riskind, The Columbus Dispatch.
Feb 4: “Doing nothing not an option"
Congress must act quickly in aftermath of Citizens United decision
WASHINGTON DC -- "The League of Women Voters [yesterday] testified before the Committee on House Administration in a hearing entitled Defining the Future of Campaign Finance in an Age of Supreme Court Activism. At the U.S. congressional hearing, Mary G. Wilson, the national League president, told committee members that they must pass legislation governing corporate and union spending quickly, in order for it to take effect for the 2010 elections.
'The Court’s majority decision in Citizens United v. FEC was fundamentally wrong and a tragic mistake. But this is the decision of the Court,' said Wilson. 'Congress needs to respond now, recognizing its own authority and responsibility to uphold the Constitution. Fair and clean elections, determined by the votes of American citizens, should be at the center of our democracy.'
'The Court’s decision in Citizens United upends basic campaign finance law that has been in place for a century. It changes the foundation on which decades of congressional enactments on money in elections are built. Such a fundamental change requires a strong response from Congress and the Executive,'" Kelly Ceballos, League of Women Voters.
Feb 4:
Letson proposes public contest to redraw districts
Another legislator also is proposing a revamped redistricting plan
COLUMBUS -- "Democrats in the Ohio House are backing a new plan for redrawing the state’s legislative districts that they say will remove partisanship from the process.
The resolution, offered by Rep. Tom Letson of Warren, D-64th, calls for a public competition to draw state legislative district lines and a nonpartisan arbiter to confirm the results.
'The House reapportionment reform plan takes the politics out of reapportionment by providing specific criteria as to how district lines are to be drawn,' Letson said during a Monday press conference at the Statehouse. 'This, in turn, makes each district more competitive,'" Mark Kovac, Youngstown Vindicator.
Feb 4: Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan defends hiring of mapping system manager
CUYAHOGA COUNTY -- "Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan has leaped to the defense of John Kable, the new, but very much in limbo, manager of the county's geographic mapping system.
Kable has been the subject of much debate since being chosen last month to replace J. Kevin Kelley, who last year pleaded guilty to corruption-related charges. Some county officials are concerned with the appearance of hiring Kable since he was previously employed by Michael Baker Jr. Inc.
Michael Baker Jr. worked with Kelley on the mapping system, and federal prosecutors have referred to the company in their widespread investigation of county government. Kable has not been identified by name or description in any documents related to the probe and the company is cooperating with investigators," Henry J. Gomez, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Feb 3:
Parties fight over district redrawing
COLUMBUS -- "'You remember 8th grade social studies? Remember gerrymandering? That's the best way to describe it to citizens,' said Catherine Turcer with Ohio Citizen Action.
Turcer wants to see Ohio eliminate gerrymandering once and for all. She supports a new bill that would create a fair way to draw legislative lines.
'The problem is you can't ever really take the politics out of things,' Turcer said. 'You might as well just own it and be practical and say, 'okay, what we want to do is create criteria that is sensible,'"Jim Heath, ONNtv.com.
Feb 3:
The impeachment drum starts to beat again
WASHINGTON DC -- "It’s not a drumbeat yet. But calls for impeachment of one or more Supreme Court justices are bubbling up in response to the Citizens United decision. Not so long ago, similar calls came from the right; but no matter the source, when such calls are made in political fury, they fly against the intent of our nation’s Founders. In American Chronicle, writer Gary Ater singles out Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel Alito, (in photo above) contending they testified under oath about the limited role of the Supreme Court, then stepped to vastly overreach that role in Citizens United. 'At least these two justices have broken the law by not fulfilling their own commitments that were made while being under oath,' Ater writes, urging a group of elected officials to 'pursue these justices,'" Peter Hardin, GavelGrab.
Feb 2:
Ohio House Democrats have plan to redistrict
Idea would let public have a say in layout of legislative maps
COLUMBUS -- "Supporters of finding new, less political ways of drawing legislative and congressional districts say it's time for Democrats and Republicans to marry their ideas.
House Democrats introduced a plan yesterday that would allow the public to submit legislative maps, which then would be graded based on four criteria, including whether districts could produce a fair number of representatives from each party, whether districts are competitive, and the number of times municipalities are divided.
Senate Republicans passed a plan in September that would create a bipartisan board that would need a supermajority vote to approve maps for both legislative and congressional districts," Jim Siegel, The Columbus Dispatch.
Feb 2:
Who is New Models?
COLUMBUS -- "Anyone wishing to find out who bankrolled a campaign to halt Gov. Ted Strickland's plan for slot machines at racetracks was supposed to be able to find out [Friday, January 29].
That was the deadline for LetOhioVote.org to report its funding sources to Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. The group, headed by three conservatives, has refused to provide information about who is paying its considerable bills. (Those bills add up to more than $1.5 million, mostly to mount a petition drive to place Strickland's slots-at-racetracks plan on the November ballot.)
But [Friday, January 29] only deepened the mystery," Jim Siegel, The Columbus Dispatch.
Who funded slots foes?
Jon Craig, Cincinnati Enquirer.
Feb 1:
Ohio gubernatorial candidates raise big bucks for 2010 election
COLUMBUS -- "Ohio gubernatorial candidates Ted Strickland and John Kasich jumped into the 2010 election year with millions in their campaign pockets and on pace to make their race one of the most expensive in state history. Strickland, the Democratic governor and former congressman who raised a record $16.8 million for his 2006 gubernatorial bid, raised $6.4 million in 2009. (His 2006 GOP opponent, Ken Blackwell, raised $12 million.)
Thanks to strong fund-raising in 2008 and early 2009, Strickland has $6.4 million on hand, more than any incumbent Ohio governor 10 months before an election in state history, his campaign says," Mark Naymik, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
 Kasich, Strickland tally up donations
Campaign reports show governor's challenger narrowing money gap
Joe Hallett and Mark Niquette, The Columbus Dispatch.
More than $10M raised in Ohio governor's race
Julie Carr Smyth, Assocaited Press.
Feb 1:
Battle for House gears up
Parties raise record campaign gifts in '09; GOP needs 4 more seats to regain control
COLUMBUS -- "Signaling just how fierce the two parties will battle for control of the Ohio House, Democrats and Republicans each posted a record fundraising total for 2009.
Republicans need a net pickup of four seats in November to regain control of the chamber.
The House Democratic Caucus, which uses its money to help House Democratic candidates in key districts across the state, raised a record $4.5 million since the start of 2009 and ended the year with a bit more than $4 million on hand. Leading the caucus is Speaker Armond Budish, whose fundraising efforts have been well-known since he first ran for office in 2006," Jim Siegel, The Columbus Dispatch.
Feb 1: Ohio House leaders plan to delete all Tweeting
COLUMBUS -- "House Speaker Armond Budish said he would move to strengthen rules preventing members from communicating with lobbyists or sending "Tweets" electronically while on the House floor.
Responding to a Dispatch story yesterday about how some members posted commentary on their Twitter pages during Tuesday's State of the State speech by Gov. Ted Strickland, Budish said he would put a stop to such activity, although he didn't go into detail on how.... 'The reason we don't allow communications from the floor already is because we don't want lobbyists communicating with legislators while discussion of various bills is going forward,' Budish said. 'We will make sure in the House that that does not occur,'" Jim Siegel, The Columbus Dispatch.
Feb 1: Public employees' immunity limited
COLUMBUS -- "Public employees who act recklessly are not protected by their employers' cloak of immunity and can be sued personally for damages, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
A lawyer who regularly defends local governments said he fears that the ruling will prompt a flurry of lawsuits against public employees.
The ruling ended appeals in a wrongful-death lawsuit in which the estate of a woman killed in a 2003 crash with a drunken driver sued two Circleville police officers and a dispatcher, accusing them of reckless conduct,'" Randy Ludlow, The Columbus Dispatch.
Feb 1: Blog: Gone but not forgotten
COLUMBUS -- "It's been more than a year and a half since Marc Dann was Ohio's attorney general, but his campaign committee is still alive and spending.
Dann, forced from office in a spring 2008 scandal, reported $8,500 in expenditures from his campaign committee during the second half of 2009. The report was due to the secretary of state's office today.
Dann's largest expense was a $1,000 fine paid to the Ohio Elections Commission for misusing his campaign fund to pay personal expenses," James Nash, The Columbus Dispatch.
Jan 29:
Campaign finance ruling's likely impact overblown
LOS ANGELES -- "Media coverage and commentary have vastly overstated the likely impact on federal election campaigns of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which ruled that corporations have the same right to free speech as individuals. It has also obscured the extent to which members of Congress from both parties had previously opened the door for corporate and union financing in federal campaigns.
As associate director for policy of the Campaign Finance Institute from 2002-09, I wrote a number of studies showing the rise of corporate and union spending, via tax-exempt organizations, in federal elections. My research found that this spending supported media ads and grass-roots mail, phone and other communications that tore down or boosted candidates without using explicit phrases such as 'vote for' or 'vote against,'" Stephen R. Weissman, Los Angeles Times.
More on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
Jan 28: Opinion: A Partisan Supreme Court
CLEVELAND -- "Last week's Supreme Court decision granting corporations the right to spend unrestricted amounts of money supporting or opposing candidates in federal elections is so strained in its reasoning and so removed from the realities of American life that it would be grotesquely comedic, were its implications not so dire.
We're all familiar, of course, with the disenfranchisement of corporate America. It's common knowledge that the interests of big business are routinely ignored at every level of society, and that the deprivation of rights suffered by those unfortunates who populate its executive suites is a continuing affront to the national conscience. That, at least, was the suggestion of the strident tone taken by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. 'If the First Amendment has any force,' he wrote, 'it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens or associations of citizens for simply engaging in political speech.'
You would think that the federal prisons were overflowing with corporate martyrs to freedom of expression. This is reasoning ludicrous on its face and radical in its dismissal of judicial decisions stretching back to Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. The notion that corporate rights and individual rights -- particularly those recognized by the First Amendment -- are congruent is absurd. Do corporations have a right to freedom of religion, or just to those liberties that advance commercial interests,?" Plain Dealer guest columnist Tim Rutten, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
More on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
Jan 28: Prosecutor Bill Mason hasn't prosecuted ex-lawyer who misappropriated $300,000
CLEVELAND -- "Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason has known Christopher McCauley for two decades: Mason was in McCauley's law school class in the 1980s, rented office space from him in the 1990s, represented him in a 1997 foreclosure, paid him for campaign work in 2002 and 2003 and employed him in the prosecutor's office in 2004 and 2005.
What he has not done is prosecute him, even though the Ohio Supreme Court's disciplinary arm ruled that McCauley misappropriated more than $300,000 from his clients and kept it for his own use -- partly while in Mason's employment," Mark Puente, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Jan 27: The more things change...
Campaign finance reform still not on agenda of Issue 6 supporters
CUYAHOGA COUNTY-- "Local activist Greg Coleridge plans to push for campaign-finance reform in Cuyahoga County, but he wonders if local officials are as committed to the idea as he is.... Big money is here to stay in national and state politics, judging from last week's controversial Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. But there are viable options to local campaign-finance reform, and if it is indeed going to happen on the local level, now is the time to ride the momentum, says Catherine Turcer of Columbus-based Ohio Citizen Action. That's Callahan's point: After elected offices are filled in November, inertia will likely take hold and incumbents will naturally favor whatever system favors them.
'You use the momentum to keep moving the process,' says Turcer. 'You need to make sure you have good [campaign- finance] rules in place beside the change in government. If you don't take care of it right away, you fall back into the same habits — it's hard work to raise money from alternative sources and not from your employees,'" Damian Guevara, Cleveland Scene.
Jan 27: Redistricting plan is stalled
COLUMBUS -- "The state legislature can move quickly and act decisively — when it wants.... A plan to end gerrymandering in our time — a problem that has been on the legislature's radar for decades — appears to be stalled, however.
Odds are that voters in this state will be stuck for an additional decade with a system of drawing legislative districts that undermines the one-man, one-vote ideals of our democracy," Dennis J. Willard, Akron Beacon Journal.
Jan 27: Husted seeks disclosure of corporate donors
COLUMBUS -- "Responding to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week allowing corporate spending for political campaigns, state Sen. Jon Husted is calling for expanded disclosure requirements in Ohio.
Husted, a Kettering Republican and a former House speaker who is running for secretary of state, sent a letter Monday to Democratic House Speaker Armond Budish and Republican Senate President Bill M. Harris calling for new legislation to prevent 'the influence of unlimited, undisclosed contributions from dominating the 2010 elections.'
Experts have said the Supreme Court ruling could make Ohio's ban on corporate spending for political advertising for or against candidates unenforceable," Mark Niquette, The Columbus Dispatch.
Jan 26: Husted urges campaign finance “transparency” in wake of U.S. Supreme Court ruling
DAYTON -- "In the wake of last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibiting a ban on spending by corporations and unions in candidate elections, state Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, has proposed safeguards to “ensure transparency in campaign finance and advertising.”
Husted, who is running for secretary of state, outlined the proposal on Monday, Jan. 25, in a letter to Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, and House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood. Copies were sent to Gov. Ted Strickland and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner," William Hershey, Dayton Daily News.
Husted calls for greater disclosure in wake of court ruling
Mark Niquette, The Columbus Dispatch.
Jan 26: Citizens United: A long-term perspective
 COLUMBUS -- "A quarter-century from now, when we celebrate the bicentennial of de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, what will we think of Citizens United? The majority opinion was written to be revered, in the way that New York Times v. Sullivan or The Pentagon Papers Case has been. But perhaps, instead, it may be seen as a stain on the fabric of democracy, one sending the country into another era of sullied politics like the one before the Progressive Era took hold. The 90-page dissent is certainly written with this sort of prognosis in mind.... If a quarter-century from now, Congress remains dysfunctional, Citizens United will hardly have been the only cause. People will point to the filibuster, gerrymandering, and other factors that preceded Citizens United. And the bicentennial of de Toqueville’s book will not be a happy occasion. Let us hope that that is not the situation in which we find ourselves.
Let us hope, instead, that we look back upon Citizens United as a spur which helped motivated Congress to engage in institutional self-improvement, which started a process that reduced the nation’s democracy deficit," Edward B. Foley, Election Law @ Moritz.
Overview of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
More on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
Jan 25: Martin Gottlieb: Last chance to fix rules that shut out centrists
DAYTON -- "From Catherine Turcer, of Ohio Citizen Action, a consumer advocacy group, on the case for changing a system that creates too many legislative districts that are hopelessly lopsided in favor of one political party:
'Competitive districts tend to create more centrists. And wouldn’t that be nice to have in government, because there’s something to be said for consensus-building?'
Here, in other words, is a chance to actually do something about partisanship," Martin Gottlieb, Dayton Daily News.
Jan 25: Editorial: Corporations didn’t need more rights
WASHINGTON DC -- "The court has ruled that corporations may use unlimited amounts of their own money on federal elections. That overturns a 63-year-old law federal. Ohio has a similar law.
And the corporations (and presumably unions) are no longer banned from funding 'issue-oriented' ads out of their general fund in the two months before an election, as they were under McCain-Feingold.
However, the corporations may still not give money directly to candidates. (The court was silent on that.) And the part of McCain-Feingold that banned unlimited contributions to national parties remains in force," Dayton Dayly News.
Editorial: Supreme Court ruling on corporations and free speech opens big checkbooks to politicians
Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Letter to the editor: Supreme Court gave Big Business power
The Columbus Dispatch.
Stunning show of judicial activism
Erwin Chemerinsky, Akron Beacon Journal.
McCain says campaign finance reform is dead
Associated Press.
More on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
Jan 25: This year's vote to decide who draws the map for congressional districts
WASHINGTON DC -- "Ohio has 18 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Yet even in what is expected to be a volatile political year, more than a dozen shouldn't have a care in the world about the November elections.
As most Ohio congressional incumbents cruise to re-election this year, they can thank the relatively safe congressional districts drawn up in 2002 by the Republicans when they controlled the governor's office, the Ohio Senate and the Ohio House.
And Ohioans are on the verge of seeing the same much-criticized process locked in again for the next 10 years," Jack Torry, The Columbus Dispatch.
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